Discussion

Why Can't You Eat (Freshened) Dried Porcinis Raw?

Sorry for a stupid question. In the market today, I picked up a small package of dried porcini mushrooms, which I plan to soak and use in recipe. There was a rather stern warning about not consuming the reconstituted mushrooms without cooking them first. Why? Thanks!

Porcinis can be eaten raw. It may be that the source can't guarantee that the mushrooms haven't gone a little "off" during the drying process. This can happen - I dry a lot of porcinis myself. Cooking them will take eliminate any bacteria or other bugs that may be in the mushrooms. And by bugs, I really mean bugs. Porcini mushrooms are notoriously buggy.

Ok, good to know as my Dad loves mushrooms and uses a lot of the dried kind.

By the way I did some googling and it seems that whilst eating raw mushrooms does not necessarily cause instant illness, it may not be good in the long term as they can contain some nasty toxins. Take a look at this page: http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/Eatin...

I do not claim any special knowledge in this area, so would love to hear from others who know more.

Wow - that is really interesting. I had no idea. I know that individual reactions to edible fungi can be incredibly variable. For instance I can't eat so much as a teaspoon of puffball - cooked or otherwise - which is a famously edible species. My husband, on the other hand, can't eat tricholoma mushrooms without disgustingly horrible effect. I don't have any problem with them. As for porcini, I said they're edible raw because I've had them served raw in salad - and they were fine (and so was I). But from this information it seems that toxins are unpredictible. And perhaps the very process of drying the mushrooms would actually concentrate any toxic compounds in them, making them more dangerous than eating them fresh. Very very interesting. For what it's worth, I never liked sliced button mushrooms in salads anyway. So there.

These don't have toxins.Some mushrooms must be boiled like Amanita Rubescens to denature the toxinsSo you can eat it raw but cooking is better, Either way is goooodJust remember to remove the white/yellow spongy underneath the cap.The soup is really good...Dry to store

It works another way, too- I've been told by naturopaths and others that many mushrooms have health benefits and medicinal qualities, but that these are only fully available once the mushrooms are cooked. The opposite situation from most veggies, where the raw ones are best for us and the more cooked they are, the more they lose.